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OK so I lied about the whole ‘no more TAS’ thing; but I never got a chance to post up the Super GT Special. TAS is a trade show, and what better way to market your product than to slap it on a full blown, competition race car? There isn’t really, so, to my pleasant surprise, the Salon grounds were sprinkled with Super GT cars; like the Nismo built Motul/Autech GT-R. Super GT is a fairly unique series that puts excitement first. Only allowing pit stops during certain time frames, mandatory ballast for winning cars, and intake air restrictors all add to competition. Click past the break for more Super GT.
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Is this thing bad ass or what? Piloted by Satoshi Motoyama and Benoit Treluyer, the GT-R didn’t win last year, but clenched the driver’s championship in 2008; it’s debut year.
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If you follow Super GT, this car should be recognizable to you. The Hasemi Motorsports 350Z in all it’s yellow-ness.
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In 2010, piloted by Kazuki Hoshino & Masataka Yanagida, the Hasemi Motorsports Z drove strong to take both team and driver’s championship for GT300 class.
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It was kind of hard to get real close because of the roped off platform. Actually, all the GT cars were roped off. You can see the air jack input on the front bumper here.
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It’s cool to see sometimes that the same parts on these cars, are the same that we have on our own built cars. Like the Mugen/Takata trunk fasteners.
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The Magical Carbon Hasepro Toyota Axio, a.k.a, Toyota Corolla. Sure doesn’t look like a Corolla. This was one of two Axio’s at the show. In 2010, this was driven by K. Saga, and Matsuura. Unfortunately, they did not place well.
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I wonder if the exterior is really carbon, or if it’s Magical Carbon?
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I like the color scheme. Hasepro’s booth had a demonstration of how to apply there super cool carbon sheets.
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GT300 seems to have a greater variety of cars than GT500. Makes things a little more interesting.
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Here is the other Axio GT300 competitor. If you haven’t noticed by now, GT300 cars all have yellow tinted headlights. Makes it a tad easier to pick them out in the field.
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The official wheel of Super GT.
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The crowds were enormous, but seemed to be even larger by the GT cars. Forgive me for the somewhat abstract angle of pictures hahaha.
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All pretty similar to the last Axio. Check out that guy breaking the rope barrier!
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While technically not a Super GT car, I had to post this Gazoo Racing built LFA because of how gnarly it is. I found a video of this awhile ago posted on Nihon Car, and was mesmerized. I’ll have to try and find it later. I’ll post it up if I do.
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This car was built for the 24h Nurgburing Race, and drivers Iida Akira, Kinoshita Takayuki, Wakisaka Toshikazu, Ooshima Kazuya drove it to the top of it’s class; 18th overall. I like how they left the bug and rubber spattered bumper on.
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If you’re interested in find other GT cars, there are some sprinkled throughout my other TAS posts. The Calsonic GT-R, Weiider HSV, and others have already been posted. I’ll go and find that video of this thing ^. Enjoy!
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